insight
I don’t think anyone in the Government
suspected Sunday schools to be breeding
grounds for terrorists.
Anti-terror strategy vs. religious freedom
Rather surprisingly, anti-terror legislation can
also pose dangers to churches. The Government’s
counter-extremism strategy introduced in 2015
stated that out-of-school institutions teaching
children would have to register for inspection.
The Government then introduced plans to force
all Sunday schools to register for inspections,
but that was dropped after fierce opposition.
but trying to combat religiously inspired terrorism
through legislation can have some unexpected
consequences because of the equality laws.
In Russia the anti-terror legislation is already
being used against churches. In June 2016 the
Russian State Dume adopted new anti-extremism
legislation. As a result, the Russian authorities now
consider any unregistered church as illegal.
I don’t think anyone in the Government suspected
Sunday schools to be breeding grounds for terrorists,
Almost three out of four 18–24 year-olds
say they have no religion, a rise of nine
percentage points since 2015.
Post-Christian democracy vs. religious freedom
Democracy can also become a danger to religious
freedom when it becomes secular enough.
Dr James Orr, the author of Beyond Belief:
Defending Religious Liberty through the British
Bill of Rights, argues that the loss of the shared
meaning for the common good has led to upholding
subjective rights with destructive consequences:
“Modern liberalism is now in danger of transforming
its greatest achievement into its most destructive
legacy. It has, in effect, encouraged subjective rights
to become legal weapons for one minority group to
wield against another, driven the culture wars into
the courtroom, and forced judges to settle questions
of belief and practice about which they can be
expected to know little.”
When morality no longer has a reference point
beyond the human race, what is right and wrong
16 Revival Times February 2018
becomes entirely subjective – and decided
democratically.
Judges 21:25 says: “In those days there was no king
in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own
eyes.” In a secular democracy, people will decide
together and do what is right in their own eyes.
Alarmingly, British Social Attitudes survey published
in September 2017 revealed that, first time, over half
of Brits don’t have a religion.
Almost three out of four 18- to 24-year-olds say
they have no religion, a rise of nine percentage
points since 2015. More generally, 53% of all adults
describe themselves as having no religious affiliation,
up from 48% in 2015.
Over a period of time, our legislation, one of the
main products of the democratic process, will begin
to reflect this absence of faith.